RIYADH: Saudi energy giant ACWA Power has signed an SR3 billion ($800 million) agreement with Senegal’s Ministry of Water to develop a desalination plant. The company, partly owned by the Public Investment Fund, announced the inking of a water purchase agreement for the construction of the facility in Dakar, Senegal in a statement on the Saudi Stock Exchange, Tadawul. ACWA Power will be responsible for the infrastructure, design and financing as well as construction, operation and maintenance of the Grande Cote seawater desalination plant in the West African country. The project will have a production capacity of 400,000 cubic meters per day, the statement said. Its first phase and financial impact are expected to materialize by the first quarter of 2028, with a contract duration of 32 years. This marks a continued partnership between the company and Senegal, as it has previously signed a memorandum of understanding with the Senegalese National Water Co. and the country’s National Electricity Co. in September 2022. The MoU entailed the development of a 300,000 cubic meters per day seawater reverse osmosis plant in Grande Cote, located about 40 km north of the nation’s capital. The development was the first desalination project in the country to be facilitated through a public-private partnership and the largest treatment initiative of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa.